The Fashion House’s SoHo Store Opening Fete

Thank God for Chloé—and no, I am not being self-reverential. Until the iconic clothing brand opened up their new Greene Street haven, the only Khloe on that stretch in SoHo was Kardashian, at her and sister Kim’s DASH boutique a mere stone’s throw away, and before stones actually do get thrown, it’s time we welcome an antidote to the neighborhood. I take a personal stake in this fight, as a Chloe myself, who now receives her lattes with “Khloe” scrawled across the side by an E!-obsessed barista, I can tell you, I am grateful to both the iconic clothing brand as well as its lovely designer, Clare Waight Keller, who, along with the clothes themselves, practically screams, “We are the anti-Kardashian and we welcome you into our pale marble foyer and cognac velvet Bibendum chairs.” But of course, Waight Keller would never scream, nor would her elegant and effortless designs, which prefer to float and speak softly.

The store opened in March, but the brand celebrated Tuesday night on the occasion of Waight Keller being in town for resort presentations. “It’s our first store downtown, and it’s the first with the new concept, so it’s what we have in Paris exported here, which is really nice,” the designer explained. Guests including Dree Hemingway, Phil Winser, Mia Moretti, Fabiola Beracasa, Rachel Chandler Guinness, and Cecilia Dean sipped cocktails that were served perilously close to the Colorblock Alice Satchels suspended in the window displays along with smoked salmon tartines passed on Lucite trays. An intimate dinner at Locanda Verde followed with the group decamping crosstown to the Tribeca eatery. Sarah Hoover and Tom Sachs joined Shala Monroque and Anya Ziourova at the middle section of the long wooden table festooned with clusters of end-of-the-season peonies.

Ziourova wore a black crepe Chloé jumpsuit with gold-beaded arrows running down her sleeve and pant leg, pointing our attention toward her envy-inducing five weeks post-baby physique. Monroque is going home to St. Lucia for the summer, while Hoover and Sachs are off to Hydra, “and then I’m dragging Tom to Athens—in July!—because he’s never seen the Acropolis. But I don’t feel bad, because this time last year he took me to the Sahara and it was 117 degrees at night!”

Asked about Monday’s marathon of resort presentations at Milk Studios, Waight Keller insisted it was a good day: “The location I got, which was the penthouse, is pretty fab, so it was a really good day, and we got a great response.” Later that day, she made it up to the Met to see the Punk exhibit. “It was great. I loved Guido [Palau]’s punk wigs—I was totally into them! Tomorrow, I’m going to mill about town—I’ve got a lot of things I want to do.” Indeed, forget Keeping Up with the Kardashians, try Keeping Up with Clare.